It was with a healthy dose of understatement that Oliver Skipp described this year’s Uefa Under-21 Championship as “slightly different”. Consistency is usually the buzzword at a major tournament but this time England are genuinely hoping for a campaign of two halves: the finals are split between a group stage over the next week and a knockout phase in early summer, adding extra emphasis to a hurdle that Skipp’s predecessors have traditionally struggled to clear.
A competition Skipp, the Spurs midfielder who is having an outstanding loan season with the Championship leaders Norwich, describes as “one of the major tournaments after the [senior] World Cup and Euros” therefore feels disorientating and unfamiliar. It has simply had to adapt to the times, Covid-19 meaning the qualification play-offs scheduled for November were cancelled and instead the five best runners-up were fast-tracked to the finals, co-hosted by Slovenia and Hungary, swelling the numbers in action this week to 16.
England have found the going difficult enough in competitions of 12 and, before 2017, eight. Since 2000 they have been knocked out of their group on six occasions out of nine; it is a poor record even if two semi-final appearances and, in 2009, a runners-up spot in that time brighten the picture. Heavily billed processions of talent have simply not delivered enough and it was hard to disagree with the then-Football Association technical director Les Reed when, after the campaign two years ago yielded a single point, he suggested England had foundered on “overconfidence” and said their attitude “doesn’t need to border on arrogance”.
The FA largely absolved Boothroyd from blame for what happened in Italy, so he is trusted to cajole a markedly more effective performance now. A fractured tournament at least makes the immediate task a bite-sized one: finish above at least two of Portugal, Croatia and Switzerland – none of whom would brook being underestimated – in Group D so that they can return in late May.
As when a squad led by James Maddison, Mason Mount and Phil Foden travelled in 2019, the roll call Boothroyd can survey before the opener against Switzerland in Koper on Thursday makes one wonder what could go wrong. Even though Mason Greenwood was ruled out on Tuesday through injury, the attacking options look particularly well stocked. Emile Smith Rowe and the PSV Eindhoven forward Noni Madueke, who has made significant strides away from the radar in the Netherlands, are debutants and will join players such as Callum Hudson-Odoi, Eddie Nketiah, Eberechi Eze, Dwight McNeil and Greenwood’s replacement Todd Cantwell. It is a pool that, even allowing for time-honoured English bluster, should be capable of competing strongly.
It is also a group that, for all the historical baggage on this particular stage, has experience of taking the final leap. Six of the party were involved in the Under-17 World Cup win in 2017, when England defeated a Spain side that had left them heartbroken in the European equivalent five months previously. Marc Guehi, another impressive Championship loanee from Chelsea to Swansea, captained England in those campaigns and is a nailed-on starter this month.
“I was absolutely distraught when we lost at the Euros,” Guehi said. “Devastated. But we were all there in that moment in defeat. Going through the whole tournament at the Euros and then the World Cup with that togetherness was massive. It was a platform for us to go on, and winning it was the best feeling ever, it was fantastic.”
The fact a quarter of these players can tell such stories can do little harm. It means many a team that sailed through the qualifiers, but still exhibited some of the tendencies Reed identified in drawing 3-3 against Andorra, know how to bridge the chasm between despair and elation. “Togetherness” is a mantra Boothroyd has preached, hopeful that sound habits and positive experiences will transmit freely.
Given the sparkling fortunes Mount, Maddison, Foden, Tammy Abraham, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and several others have experienced with their clubs since the terminal 4-2 defeat against Romania at the 2019 edition, it is fair to say an under-21 championship is hardly the perfect tool for predicting the broader impact of different nations’ young prospects. Failure need not denote a lack of quality given most would consider the real proving ground to lie elsewhere.
Nonetheless it will be instructive to see how England stand up against their peers. France are favourites to become champions for the first time since 1988, thanks to a selection that includes Matteo Guendouzi, Wesley Fofana, Boubakary Soumaré, Eduardo Camavinga, Colin Dagba and Odsonne Édouard. A formidable looking Portugal include Wolves’ Vitinha but lack the injured Milan forward Rafael Leão; Germany’s games will attract attention given Youssoufa Moukoko, the 16-year-old Borussia Dortmund phenomenon, has been called up.
Progression from their group would probably land England a quarter-final against Italy or the holders, Spain, two months down the track. Given the sharp snap back into everyday duty it may not engender a sense of unstoppable momentum, but it would suggest the lessons of the 2017 vintage may yet help slay the ghosts that haunted Boothroyd two years afterwards.
